condense the Internet, as it relates to Genealogy, into a 30-45 minute presentation?
The Genealogical Society of Whitley County is going to conduct a "Beginning Genealogy" workshop on Saturday morning, March 17th. It will be held at (and sponsored by) the Peabody Public Library. There is no charge but participation is limited to 20 people. We may also be having a workshop later in the spring for the young people in 4-H that have signed up for the genealogy project.
"Internet Genealogy" is my portion of the workshop. So, just what can be said in the allotted time that will make sense and not totally confuse the beginner?
2 comments:
Hi Becky,
I tried to post two nights ago but managed to forget to log in first, then post. I'll try again (and hit Ctrl-C before I hit post!).
I have done exactly what you are trying to do. My message was simple:
1) There are many online resources available now, and there is more to come.
2) Everything you need to search for your genealogy is NOT on the Internet.
3) Treat everything that you find on the Internet generated by another researcher as finding aids - not real data. You have to find primary information in original sources to prove your relationships.
That said, I launched into a list of web sites with:
1) online databases - sites with actual data
2) data portals - sites with collections of links
3) my 10 best sites, with bullets describing what they have.
4) sites by topic - census, military, immigration, etc.
All of that I provided in a handout, which is now a bit outdated, since I did it two years ago!
Any information you provide will snow them under because they aren't computer-savvy or because of info-glut - overload. That's the purpose of the handout, and keep in touch with them and remind them of the handout.
Good luck -- Randy
Thanks for the tips Randy. I'm in the process of putting together a handout, as you suggested, and gathering links to various categories of websites, including some online tutorials and "learning" sites. It's just a bit overwhelming trying to decide what should be included and for that matter, what shouldn't be. I'm going to try to keep it simple yet helpful, if that's possible!
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